Middlesbrough Council are keen for the street - which links Middlesbrough’s shopping centres, the town hall, and hotels with Middlesbrough Railway Station - to be cleaned up and form part of its regeneration strategy to boost business and leisure.

New restaurants, a boutique bowling alley and refurbishment of the town hall have already revitalised one part of the road, but the council has introduced an business enterprise zone along the street - and has plans for the section between Wilson Street and Corporation Road.

However, to achieve that, a lot of private property needs to be brought back into use.

Some of that work has already started, with property firm Jomast currently renovating formerly empty buildings from 15 to 25 Albert Road.

A lot of work has already been done

Mr Hill said that Jomast had already completed renovations at Wilson’s Courtyard and the former Sun Alliance office buildings on the opposite side of the road, before it turned its attention to 15-25 Albert Road.

This row of historic Middlesbrough buildings has been neglected for decades, but scaffolding is now up and Jomast is working on fixing up and refurbishing the outside of the building.

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A row of asbestos lined garages have been knocked down behind the buildings, which face onto Dundas Mews, and Jomast workers will start working on the interior when that’s completed.

Scaffolding should come down around March time.

What’s happening in the buildings?

Jomast is remodelling the downstairs of each property for business use - and while Mr Hill has not ruled out leisure uses for them such as restaurants and cafes, it’s likely that it will be used for office space.

Sam Gilmore, Middlesbrough Council’s head of economic growth, said that businesses from the BOHO zone in Middlesbrough are often unable to find new accommodation to move out - so new office space will provide the necessary churn to allow new start-ups to set up at BOHO.

Mr Hill said the office space is likely to be a “brand new shop front with a serviced white box” - which can be changed depending on the type of business that moves in.

Work has started to redevelop buildings on Albert Road in Middlesbrough (Image: Ian Cooper)

Upstairs there will be nine apartments, serviced by parking at the rear where garages have been demolished.

But Mr Hill said that these would not be fitted out and marketed until ground floor businesses were established.

Why has it taken so long?

Chair of the panel, Cllr Matt Storey, asked Mr Hill why Jomast has taken so long to start work on a street that is so strategically important to Middlesbrough’s future.

Work had initially been pencilled in to begin in 2016 on the buildings, which Jomast has owned for around 30 years.

“The Premier Inn was the cause of the slippage from 2016,” said Mr Hill, referring to the soon to open Middlesbrough town centre hotel.

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“Negotiations with the council have been long and fraught, and Premier Inn were getting impatient. They could have pulled out.

“That had a lot of money, and a lot of our bodies, tied up with it.

“We only have so much we can do at once and we needed to start that work quickly.”

When Cllr Storey pointed out the building had been in Jomast’s possession for decades, Mr Hill continued: “We do not just operate in Middlesbrough, but across the North-east, and we have quite a big pipeline of work we can only do so much at one time.

“But I agree, it should’ve happened sooner.”

Cleaning up the street - and sorting out the buses?

Many councillors on the panel said Albert Road was dirty and unappealing, and needed a deep clean and a continued effort from the council.

The panel heard how drain covers are regularly lifted by people fishing out cigarette butts to rescue small amounts of tobacco to roll new ones.

Michelle McPhee, Middlesbrough’s newly appointed town centre manager, said that as part of a strategic review of the centre deep cleaning will be carried out.

And removing unnecessary street furniture, and placing new litter bins, is also under review.

Councillors also raised the possibility of buses being re-routed away from Albert Road completely - between Corporation Road and Wilson Street - to reduce the amount of traffic along the street to make it more attractive for businesses to set up.

Mr Hill agreed: “There has been a discussion with the council about that. It’s in an early stage, but I agree.”

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The future of Bar Fresco and Slam bar

Councillors spoke about how Wilson Street and the buildings under the A66 underpass also need urgent attention.

Cllr Margaret Walters asked about the future of Bar Fresco and Slam bar, the former Royal Exchange building.

The panel heard that Bar Fresco - empty for about a decade - is part of an active lease, which includes all the other shops on the Wilson Street side of the underpass.

But Michelle McPhee said that the council was in discussions with the leaseholder about its future - and that “there may be some movement” soon with the separate leaseholder of the former Royal Exchange.